Newcastle Abandoned

  Hugo N Taz was due to run at Newcastle

Unfortunately Newcastle as been abandoned today after 7mm if rain at the track left the course with standing water and therefore unraceable. We are particularly gutted as Hugo N Taz was due to rub in the Eider and we thought he had a cracking chance.  With the weather forecast as it was and the inspection called we thankfully did not travel all the way to Newcastle, instead we opted to travel as far as Wetherby yesterday and stayed overnight at the course - thank you very much to their team for allowing us to stay it really is appreciated.  It means the lorry is now on his way home and Hugo should be tucking into his lunch in his own stable later!  We will now have to look for another race for him but he does hold an entry in the 4 mile National Hunt Chase at the Festival next month.

With Chepstow abandoned yesterday and Newcastle this morning jumping action is a bit thin on the ground today.  There is still however some top class racing over jumps at Kempton this afternoon while there is flat action at Lingfield and Chelmsford and a jumps card at Fairyhouse in Ireland.  Tom Scu has three rides and we can look forward to the Pendil novices' chase, the Adonis juvenile hurdle, the re-arranged Kingwell hurdle (from Wincanton last weekend), the Dovecote novices' hurdle and the feature Betway handicap chase at 3.35pm.  I am particulalry interested to see how the Paul Nicholls trained Solo get's on in the juvenile hurdle.  He is an interesting recruit from France but is up against a useful looking sort in the Emmet Mullins trained Fujimoto Flyer.  Ch'tibello is the favourte in the Kingwell while the Henderson trained Buzz is 2/1 favourite for the Dovecote.  The chase looks very competitive as you would expect but top weight Black Corton is a crowd favourite and he was a good fourth at Ascot last time.  He has dropped a couple of pounds and is a Grade 1 course and distance winner as a novice so he is one I fancy in this.  There will certainly be some Cheltenham Festival clues from today's action at Kempton.

Away from the racing there is other top sporting action today as well.  There is premiership football action and Leicester are at home to Manchester City at 5.30pm while the early kick off is Chelsea against Tottenham at 12.30pm.  We have the return of the Six Nations rugby this weekend and Wales versus France kicks off at 4.45pm and Scotland are away to Italy at 2.15pm.  There is also the big fight tonight (or the early hours of tomorrow morning) from Las Vegas.  It is Wilder v Fury II after the pair last met and the fight was a draw.  I am not really into boxing but it does look to be a mouthwatering contest and there is not much between the two heavy weight fighters so the result will be a close call.  There is certainly a lot to look forward to today - enjoy everyone!